Carrabba's Italian Grill - Green Hills, TN

My husband called me at 4:30 last evening after a long and stressful day at work to invite me to dinner. Where to go? That is always the question. I really have been bored with eating out - the food to me seems to taste the same no matter where I go. Of course, the descriptions on the menu sound beyond remarkable, yet somehow the meals leave me wanting for something. Last night was no exception.
Our server was the best part of dinner - high energy, well informed, and eager to please... That should have been my first clue. He gave us a rundown of the restaurant and the fresh, never frozen meals and suggested we close our eyes and point to the menu if we were having trouble deciding. Clue #2: there is always something less than desirable on the menu, and a good server would let you know what to avoid. He did not. The fact that everything on the menu was fabulous in his mind should have clued me in to the fact that it all probably "tastes" the same. We were guaranteed to not leave hungry. I finally decided on the Linguine Pescatore with the Italian House salad ($16) and a glass of moderately priced Pinot Grigio ($7).

The House Salad
I'm very picky about any salad dressing claiming to be a vinaigrette. It cannot taste like Kraft Italian, I don't care if it was made fresh in the kitchen! All I could taste on this salad was the dressing.
The Linguine Pescatore
Again I was left wanting for taste. The amount of seafood was satisfactory, and included a variety of shrimp, mussels, and scallops. Where was the flavor? It was mildly spicy, as a good pescatore should be, but that's all it was. There was no flavor. At the very least I would have liked to have tasted some garlic, oregano and basil.

My husband ordered the Sirloin Marsala with mashed potatoes and a Ceasar Salad. I won't go into details about his since I only had a small taste of the potatoes and salad. All I will say is more of the same...

The Finale
Any good Italian restaurant ought to have a nice selection of desserts, including, of course, Tiramisu. I'm not sure what the reasoning was behind the mini desserts, but they were unimpressive. Back when I waited tables, guests were awed by the large tray of beautifully displayed dessert selections. Not so on this evening! Six shot glass sized desserts, $2 each ($3 to keep the glass). There was a mini tiramisu, and to my delight it does come in the regular sized portion! To my dismay, they were out of the regular sized portion... Not all was lost, though. Our server brought 3 minis and let us know that there would be an adjustment made to our check for the inconvenience. To my surprise, the tiramisu was quite good. It had all the proper ingredients and the flavor came across nicely.

All in all, I would rate this dinner 1 1/2 out of 5.